When duality is blended with,
and within, unity it is the true jivanmukta realization. The One
is then experienced as the Two but known to be really the One. - Paul Brunton
 Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in
Individual Mind > Chapter 2: Enlightenment Which Stays > #
123

posted to Wisdom-l by Mark Scorelle

A Man Met Himself

It had been cold a very long time
and
Rocks were covered by clear sheets of ice.

There was no pleasure in days such as this
And yet, there was.
For the cold made things sharper if one looked.

But that was the trick, one had to look
For it was in the looking that one finds the truth.

A man met himself going out of town and
This made him wary because it was not normal
To meet oneself like this.

The man paused and his self paused too
The two looked each upon the other.

At first he could not see any visible differences, yet
There must be differences that I cannot see
Each thought to himself.

The man asked his self who he was
And his self asked him the same.

What trickery is this? the man thought
He could see the brow on the other furrow in doubt
As if the other was a mime.

How can this be? the man questioned
His self questioned too.

The man looked for a very long time
Until he became anxious about his self's intentions
Whether he meant to harm him.

This made him squirm a little and
That is when he noticed it was just his reflection in the ice.

Satisfied and having had enough of this
He hurled a "good day" to his self
As he hurried along his way.

As he passed, his self turned to follow
A smile crossed his face as he echoed "good day!"

- James Corrigan

Digesting Mindfulness

Cultivating mindfulness is not unlike the
process of eating. It would be absurd to propose that someone
else eat for you. And when you go to a restaurant, you dont
eat the menu, mistaking it for the meal, nor are you nourished by
listening to the waiter describe the food. You have to actually
eat the food for it to nourish you. In the same way, you have to
actually practice mindfulness in order to reap its
benefits and come to understand why it is so valuable.

It is impossible to become like somebody
else. Your only hope is to become more fully yourself. That is
the reason for practicing meditation in the first place. Teachers
and books and CDs can only be guides, signposts. It is important
to be open and receptive to what you can learn from other
sources, but ultimately you still have to live your own life,
every moment of it.

........ Whenever there is beauty,
kindness, the recognition of the goodness of simple things in
your life, look for the background to that experience within
yourself. But don't look for it as if you were looking for
something. You cannot pin it down and say, "Now I have
it," or grasp it mentally and define it in some way. It is
like the cloudless sky. It has no form. It is space; it is
stillness, the sweetness of Being and infinitely more than these
words, which are only pointers. When you are able to sense it
directly within yourself, it deepens. So when you appreciate
something simple-----a sound, a sight, a touch------when you see
beauty, when you feel loving kindness toward another, sense the
inner spaciousness that is the source and background to that
experience........

page 91........ "Oneness With All
Life".........by Eckhart Tolle

posted to TheNow_2 & Wisdom-l

Presence is needed to become aware of the
beauty, the majesty, the
sacredness of nature. Have you ever gazed up into the infinity of
space on a
clear night, awestruck by the absolute stillness and
inconceivable vastness
of it? Have you listened, truly listened, to the sound of a
mountain stream
in the forests? Or to the song of a blackbird at dusk on a quiet
summer
evening?

To become aware of such things, the mind need needs to be still.
You have to
put down for a moment your personal baggage of problems, of past
and future,
as well as all your knowledge; otherwise, you will see but not
see, hear but
not hear. Your total presence is required.

Beyond the beauty of the external forms, there is more here:
something that
cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy
essence.
Whenever and whenever there is beauty, this inner essence shines
through
somehow. It only reveals itself to you when you are present.

Could it be that this nameless essence and your presence are one
and the
same? Would it be there without your presence? Go deeply into it.
Find out
for yourself.